The present invention relates to burnable insect control substrates (e.g. mosquito coils), holders for supporting them when they are burning (and thereby dispensing an air treatment chemical such as a repellent), and kits that include multiple such substrates, multiple such holders, and a compact container therefor.
Burnable substrates such as mosquito coils and incense coils are designed to provide sustained air treatment chemical release when burnt. They burn very slowly (because they are often designed to last overnight, or a significant portion thereof). As a result, they are susceptible to being inadvertently extinguished if they are positioned directly on a supporting surface such as a table. Thus, mosquito coils are often supported mostly or only at their center, such as by being impaled on a centrally positioned holder post. See e.g. U.S. patent application publication 2002/0124459 and U.S. Pat. No. 8,146,875.
While such holder posts reduce the incidence of premature extinguishing, ashes from such coils/substrates may drop down onto the supporting surface underneath such holders. This presents a somewhat messy appearance, and may limit where the holder stand is placed (e.g. if a support table is made of a particularly delicate material). As such burnable coil holders have been developed in which the stand is used with some form of ash tray. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,796,002 and 6,389,739. However, typical such ash tray included assemblies are not particularly compact, and as a result have an increased shipping cost, an increased material cost, and/or take up more retail shelf space than is optimal.
There have therefore been attempts to create slab-like holders where a tang of the slab can pivot up from a compact shipping position to a use/support position (so that the slab is very compact until use, and part of the holder acts like an ash tray even after the tang is pivoted up). However, the tang relies on material characteristics to keep it vertical. As a result, when the mosquito coil or similar substrate is being mounted on the tang the tang can tend to bend back down out of the desired supporting position.
Yet another problem is that when such coils are used outdoors (e.g. in a typical patio area) the repellent coverage of a single coil may not be sufficient to achieve adequate protection for somewhat larger size areas such as patio areas. It may therefore be desired to sometimes use multiple such coil/stand devices simultaneously, positioned in an array. Transporting multiple such devices to such an area, in one trip, can be somewhat awkward.
Accordingly, a need still exists for an improved mosquito coil/burnable substrate and holder, and improved kits containing such devices.